Laws
labouring under disease--there the weary frame of the rustic, worn with
toil, will receive a kindly welcome, far better than he would at the
hands of a not over-wise doctor.
The building of these and the like works will be useful and ornamental;
they will provide a pleasing amusement, but they will be a serious
employment too; for the sixty wardens will have to guard their several
divisions, not only with a view to enemies, but also with an eye to
professing friends. When a quarrel arises among neighbours or citizens,
and any one whether slave or freeman wrongs another, let the five
wardens decide small matters on their own authority; but where the
charge against another relates to greater matters, the seventeen
composed of the fives and twelves, shall determine any charges which one
man brings against another, not involving more than three minae. Every
judge and magistrate shall be liable to give an account of his conduct
in office, except those who, like kings, have the final decision.
Moreover, as regards the aforesaid wardens of the country, if they do
any wrong to those of whom they have the care, whether by imposing upon
them unequal tasks, or by taking the produce of the soil or implements
of husbandry without their consent; also if they receive anything in
the way of a bribe, or decide suits unjustly, or if they yield to the
influences of flattery, let them be publicly dishonoured; and in regard
to any other wrong which they do to the inhabitants of the country,
if the question be of a mina, let them submit to the decision of the
villagers in the neighbourhood; but in suits of greater amount, or in
case of lesser, if they refuse to submit, trusting that their monthly
removal into another part of the country will enable them to escape--in
such cases the injured party may bring his suit in the common court, and
if he obtain a verdict he may exact from the defendant, who refused to
submit, a double penalty.
The wardens and the overseers of the country, while on their two years'
service, shall have common meals at their several stations, and shall
all live together; and he who is absent from the common meal, or sleeps
out, if only for one day or night, unless by order of his commanders, or
by reason of absolute necessity, if the five denounce him and inscribe
his name in the agora as not having kept his guard, let him be deemed
to have betrayed the city, as far as lay in his power, and let him
be disgraced and beaten with impunity by any one who meets him and is
willing to punish him. If any of the commanders is guilty of such an
irregularity, the whole company of sixty shall see to it, and he who
is cognisant of the offence, and does not bring the offender to trial,
shall be amenable to the same laws as the younger offender himself, and
shall pay a heavier fine, and be incapable of ever commanding the young.
The guardians of the law are to be careful inspectors of these matters,
and shall either prevent or punish offenders. Every man should remember
the universal rule, that he who is not a good servant will not be a
good master; a man should pride himself more upon serving well than upon
commanding well: first upon serving the laws, which is also the service
of the Gods; in the second place, upon having served ancient and
honourable men in the days of his youth. Furthermore, during the two
years in which any one is a warden of the country, his daily food ought
to be of a simple and humble kind. When the twelve have been chosen, let
them and the five meet together, and determine that they will be
their own servants, and, like servants, will not have other slaves and
servants for their own use, neither will they use those of the villagers
and husbandmen for their private advantage, but for the public
service only; and in general they should make up their minds to live
independently by themselves, servants of each other and of themselves.
Further, at all seasons of the year, summer and winter alike, let them
be under arms and survey minutely the whole country; thus they will at
once keep guard, and at the same time acquire a perfect knowledge of
every locality. There can be no more important kind of information than
the exact knowledge of a man's own country; and for this as well as for
more general reasons of pleasure and advantage, hunting with dogs and
other kinds of sports should be pursued by the young. The service to
whom this is committed may be called the secret police or wardens of
the country; the name does not much signify, but every one who has
the safety of the state at heart will use his utmost diligence in this
service.
After the wardens of the country, we have to speak of the election of
wardens of the agora and of the city. The wardens of the country were
sixty in number, and the wardens of the city will be three, and will
divide the twelve parts of the city into three; like the former, they
shall have care of the ways, and of the different high roads which lead
out of the country into the city, and of the buildings, that they may be
all made according to law;--also of the waters, which the guardians of
the supply preserve and convey to them, care being taken that they may
reach the fountains pure and abundant, and be both an ornament and
a benefit to the city. These also should be men of influence, and at
leisure to take care of the public interest. Let every man propose as
warden of the city any one whom he likes out of the highest class, and
when the vote has been given on them, and the number is reduced to the
six who have the greatest number of votes, let the electing officers
choose by lot three out of the six, and when they have undergone a
scrutiny let them hold office according to the laws laid down for them.
Next, let the wardens of the agora be elected in like manner, out of the
first and second class, five in number: ten are to be first elected, and
out of the ten five are to be chosen by lot, as in the election of the
wardens of the city:--these when they have undergone a scrutiny are to
be declared magistrates. Every one shall vote for every one, and he who
will not vote, if he be informed against before the magistrates, shall
be fined fifty drachmae, and shall also be deemed a bad citizen. Let any
one who likes go to the assembly and to the general council; it shall
be compulsory to go on citizens of the first and second class, and they
shall pay a fine of ten drachmae if they be found not answering to their
names at the assembly. But the third and fourth class shall be under no
compulsion, and shall be let off without a fine, unless the magistrates
have commanded all to be present, in consequence of some urgent
necessity. The wardens of the agora shall observe the order appointed
by law for the agora, and shall have the charge of the temples and
fountains which are in the agora; and they shall see that no one injures
anything, and punish him who does, with stripes and bonds, if he be a
slave or stranger; but if he be a citizen who misbehaves in this way,
they shall have the power themselves of inflicting a fine upon him to
the amount of a hundred drachmae, or with the consent of the wardens of
the city up to double that amount. And let the wardens of the city
have a similar power of imposing punishments and fines in their own
department; and let them impose fines by their own department; and let
them impose fines by their own authority, up to a mina, or up to two
minae with the consent of the wardens of the agora.
In the next place, it will be proper to appoint directors of music
and gymnastic, two kinds of each--of the one kind the business will be
education, of the other, the superintendence of contests. In speaking
of education, the law means to speak of those who have the care of order
and instruction in gymnasia and schools, and of the going to school, and
of school buildings for boys and girls; and in speaking of contests,
the law refers to the judges of gymnastics and of music; these again
are divided into two classes, the one having to do with music, the other
with gymnastics; and the same who judge of the gymnastic contests of
men, shall judge of horses; but in music there shall be one set of
judges of solo singing, and of imitation--I mean of rhapsodists, players
on the harp, the flute and the like, and another who shall judge of
choral song. First of all, we must choose directors for the choruses of
boys, and men, and maidens, whom they shall follow in the amusement of
the dance, and for our other musical arrangements;--one director will be
enough for the choruses, and he should be not less than forty years of
age. One director will also be enough to introduce the solo singers, and
to give judgment on the competitors, and he ought not to be less than
thirty years of age. The director and manager of the choruses shall be
elected after the following manner:--Let any persons who commonly take
an interest in such matters go to the meeting, and be fined if they do
not go (the guardians of the law shall judge of their fault), but those
who have no interest shall not be compelled. The elector shall propose
as director some one who understands music, and he in the scrutiny may
be challenged on the one part by those who say he has no skill, and
defended on the other hand by those who say that he has. Ten are to be
elected by vote, and he of the ten who is chosen by lot shall undergo a
scrutiny, and lead the choruses for a year according to law. And in like
manner the competitor who wins the lot shall be leader of the solo and
concert music for that year; and he who is thus elected shall deliver
the award to the judges. In the next place, we have to choose judges
in the contests of horses and of men; these shall be selected from
the third and also from the second class of citizens, and three first
classes shall be compelled to go to the election, but the lowest may
stay away with impunity; and let there be three elected by lot out of
the twenty who have been chosen previously, and they must also have the
vote and approval of the examiners. But if any one is rejected in the
scrutiny at any ballot or decision, others shall be chosen in the same
manner, and undergo a similar scrutiny.
There remains the minister of the education of youth, male and female;
he too will rule according to law; one such minister will be sufficient,
and he must be fifty years old, and have children lawfully begotten,
both boys and girls by preference, at any rate, one or the other. He who
is elected, and he who is the elector, should consider that of all the
great offices of state this is the greatest; for the first shoot of any
plant, if it makes a good start towards the attainment of its natural
excellence, has the greatest effect on its maturity; and this is not
only true of plants, but of animals wild and tame, and also of men.
Man, as we say, is a tame or civilized animal; nevertheless, he requires
proper instruction and a fortunate nature, and then of all animals he
becomes the most divine and most civilized (Arist. Pol.); but if he
be insufficiently or ill educated he is the most savage of earthly
creatures. Wherefore the legislator ought not to allow the education of
children to become a secondary or accidental matter. In the first place,
he who would be rightly provident about them, should begin by taking
care that he is elected, who of all the citizens is in every way
best; him the legislator shall do his utmost to appoint guardian and
superintendent. To this end all the magistrates, with the exception of
the council and prytanes, shall go to the temple of Apollo, and elect by
ballot him of the guardians of the law whom they severally think will be
the best superintendent of education. And he who has the greatest number